Everything humans can do
by Angelada
Summary: "Legion?" Shepard called out. "What is that?" /"Our earlier review of human history has lead us to discover an ancient test meant to distinguish between organic and machines." He explained. "The 'Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart'. By bypassing this test, we will prove that geth are more than simply machines." *Or, the one about CAPTCHAs.*


. . . .

Shepard sighed wearily as she read through the latest reports on Reaper activity on her way to the elevator, flicking distractedly through her omni-tool.

The statistics were rather bleak, and these were the times when she really missed the days when the worst of her worries were the geth— not that they didn't still occasionally try to kill her. Or, as sometimes was the case, just try to give her a heart attack by sneaking up behind her in the hall.

"Shepard-Commander." Legion's synthetic voice sounded from somewhere at her back with its usual precision, and the commander almost jumped out of her skin. Damn… it, they? No, it didn't quite feel right; him, damn him for being so stealthy all the damn time. "There is something this unit would like to show you, should you have some available time."

Shepard willed her heartbeat to slow down and turned to face Legion with a slight frown. "What do you want to show me, Legion?" She asked, straight to the point and as cordially as she could manage considering she'd not yet had her morning coffee… and he'd startled the hell out of her.

"We believe that we have found the answer to the source of the conflict between the geth and organics." He said, at which Shepard lifted her brows high on her forehead. "While browsing this ship's files on human technology and history, we have found a way to prove that geth are equal to organics."

Legion's antenna moved from side to side, and the central light of his platform went through different brightness settings rapidly as he explained his discovery. If she didn't know any better, Shepard would have said he looked excited.

"Will you follow us, Shepard-Commander?" Legion asked, and he actually sounded hopeful. A hopeful, enthusiastic geth— who would have thought?

She nodded after a moment of thought, equal parts intrigued and worried, but decided not to dwell too much on a geth displaying something that resembled emotions.

Legion has always been a bit weird after all, even for a geth.

And Commander Jane Shepard, N7 Alliance Marine and the first ever Human Spectre, knew a lot about weird. Hell, there were few things that met her standards for weird after she'd been dead for two years only to be brought back in order to fight Collectors and Reapers—the stuff of nightmares that most people could not even imagine.

"This way, Shepard-Commander." The platform beckoned, and move on swift, metal legs towards the infirmary though, she hazarded a guess, they were probably headed to the A.I. core.

"Right." Shepard said with a tired smile. "Is it in here, then?" She motioned to the A.I. core room with a tilt of her head and blinked when she noticed the pile of what looked like old electronic parts sat in the left corner of the room.

"Affirmative." Legion confirmed, and walked further into the room to pick something up from the clutter of metal and plastic. Shepard blinked again in confusion when the geth picked up a positively ancient-looking computer unit in his arms, and she came closer as he placed it on the platform at the end of the room, pressing the button to power it up.

"Legion?" Shepard called out. "What is that?"

Legion answered without turning to face her, his voice calm and cool. "Our earlier review of human history has lead us to discover an ancient test meant to distinguish between organic and machines." He explained. "This 'Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart' was often used by humans at the start of what you call the 21st century. We will be able to access it through this old computer system. By bypassing this test, we will prove that geth are more than simply machines."

He turned his head slightly towards her before returning his focus to the machine before him.

There was a wheezing sound as the old computer started to run; it resonated loudly in the space around them, and briefly distracted the Commander from the conversation at hand. Shepard had to wonder if the old machine was broken or if it really was that loud to begin with. She couldn't imagine how anyone could have tolerated the level of noise it the latter was true.

"An ancient test, you say?" Something about what he'd talked about sounded familiar, but she couldn't quite place her finger on what that was.

"Affirmative." Legion said, the flaps around the head of his platform flaring slightly outwards; she wondered if that was the geth equivalent of a nervous smile. "Shepard-Commander will be here to witness me take this test and help settle the debate regarding the difference between synthetics and organics once and for all."

Shepard nodded absentmindedly and moved to hover over the geth's shoulder, watching him as he entered some commands into the computer display using a physical QWERTY keyboard, the kind of thing one could only find in museums nowadays—and where did he get this stuff, anyway?

She ignored that thought when Legion turned to face her again, his light strangely bright. She met his gaze as well as she could and pushed her lips up into a smile. "Okay Legion, show me."

"Acknowledged."

Both of them turned back to the display screen, and Legion pressed one last key which brought up a new window, making Shepard frown.

There, showed in slightly faded pixels, was a small input box, with a small low-resolution image underneath. Even lower, the following instructions read in bright blue: 'Please fill in the box with the text show in the image below to prove you are human'.

Shepard almost choked on her own spit as she remembered what a CAPTCHA was.

Unaware of the thought filtering through the commander's mind, Legion stared intensely at the screen, the shutters over his light half-closed, almost as if he was narrowing his eyes in concentration, before quickly typing down his answer to the challenge before him.

As he pressed the submit button and waited patiently for the system response, Shepard didn't have it in her to correct him on what his ancient test really was about.

"'Verification Complete'— I was successful, Shepard-Commander. We now have proof that geth are not inferior to organics." Legion said with what was undeniably pride, and Shepard, after a moment of consideration, shrugged her shoulders and smiled at her geth companion.

"You know what? Sure." She conceded. "Why not?"

A few days later, when Tali came up to her to demand that Shepard told her what Legion meant by the fact that the geth were CAPTCHA-approved, the Spectre could only sigh.


End file.
